Joe Biden Warns That Donald Trump And MAGA Extremism Threaten “The Very Foundations Of Our Republic”
02.09.2022 - 05:07
/ deadline.com
Joe Biden’s speech in Philadelphia on Thursday evening was a full-blown attack on Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans that “represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.”
Despite White House suggestions that the address would not be political, it’s hard to not see how it would not be seen through a partisan lens, or that it even makes any difference.
Just as the midterms kick into high gear, Biden turned the attention on his 2020 rival, Trump, who, by endorsing candidates like Dr. Oz and Blake Masters, has given Democrats new hopes of avoiding a wipeout by highlighting their opponents’ weaknesses and wild statements.
Biden’s pitch was that, while he’s worked with plenty of Republicans when he was in the Senate and during his presidency, the driving force of the party is Trump, with an agenda of denying the results of free and fair elections and, if they don’t get their way, threatening violence.
“We must be honest with each other and ourselves,” Biden said. “Too much of what is happening in our country today is not normal.”
Biden even echoed warnings from J. Michael Luttig, a prominent conservative who testified before the January 6th Committee, and presented this moment in American history as an “inflection point.”
As fragile as democracy is, Biden suggested that most Americans recognize the threat.
“This is a nation that honors our Constitution. We do not reject it,” he said. “This is a nation that believes in the rule of law. We do not repudiate it. This is a nation that respects free and fair elections. We honor the will of the people. We do not deny it. And this is a nation that rejects violence as a political tool. We do not encourage violence.”
In a “pre-rebuttal,” delivered about an hour